“I’m good.” I waved him off, stalking across the crowded room to the bar. Guys stopped to greet me, and girls tried to get my attention, but I didn’t feel like socializing.
In fact, it was a bad fucking idea that I was here in the first place. But it beat being back at my apartment, alone and miserable, wondering what Nora was doing, and whether she missed me as much as I missed her.
Fuck, I missed her.
I missed her smile and sass and those stupid fucking t-shirts she liked to wear.
I just missed her.
But I wasn’t good for her. I’d proved that one too many times.
I managed to stumble my way to the restrooms, staggering into a stall to do my thing. When I was done, I washed my hands. My reflection stared back at me. The dark circles around my eyes were haunting.
His eyes.
My fist flew out before I could stop it, colliding with the glass. It shattered, slicing open my knuckles.
“Fuck.” Blood dripped down my hand and I grabbed a bunch of paper towels out of the dispenser and wrapped it around the cut, trying to stem the flow.
A couple of guys burst into the bathroom, took one look at me and immediately backtracked. Everything was still spinning as I staggered out of there.
“Oh my God, Enzo,” the girl from a second ago came rushing over. “What did you do?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I grunted, trying to shake her off. But she wrapped her hand around my arm in a vice grip and steered me back toward the bar.
“Whisky on the rocks.” She signaled Billy. “And a bucket of ice and a first aid kit.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re getting blood everywhere.” Her eyes went to the wet soggy paper towel stained red.
Billy came back with her order. “You might want to do this somewhere a little quieter,” he suggested.
“Good thinking. Come on.” She tugged me back through the crowd, slipping into a door marked ‘private.’ A security guy nodded at me, or maybe he was nodding at her. Everything was starting to get really fucked up in my head. But then she was pulling me into a small room with a crushed velvet couch. “Sit,” she ordered.
“What’s your name?” I slurred as I dropped onto the plush couch.
“Natalia. Now let me look at your hand.” Gently unwrapping my hand, she flinched. “You made quite a mess of this.”
I could see double. Two of her, two of my hand. Her features blurred together and for a second, I saw Nora.
My Nora.
My Gattina.
“Nora,” I mumbled as she cleaned up my cuts, dressing it in a bandage from the first aid kit.
“There,” she said. “All better.”
“Don’t talk,” I snapped.
When she talked, I remembered she wasn’t Nora. And I really fucking wanted her to be Nora.
“No?” Her eyes darkened as she licked her lips. “What did you want to do then?” Slowly, Natalia lowered herself onto my lap, straddling my hips. She wrapped her slender fingers around my neck and lowered her face to mine. “I can think of a few things that don’t involve talking.”
Her lips brushed mine, and for a second I was with Nora, kissing Nora.
“Get your slutty hands off him.”
“Nora?” I blinked over at the little firecracker in the doorway, glaring at me as if I’d just—
“Nora?”
Fuck. I was tripping. Nora wasn’t here. She was at Nicco and Ari’s apartment.
But then the girl was yanked off my lap, her shrieks filling the air.
“I said get the hell off him.” The Nora apparition grabbed a fistful of the girl’s hair and started dragging her toward the door while I sat there, barely clinging onto consciousness.
My hand throbbed as blood started seeping through the bandage.
“What the fuck did you do?”
“Matteo?” I balked as he materialized in front of me. I was definitely tripping. Whatever Billy had plied me with was some strong shit.
“You’re a fucking mess,” he said, throwing a bottle of water at me. “I honestly don’t know why she keeps fighting for you.” His eyes went to where Nora was standing.
Nora was here too?
What the fuck was going on?
“Give us some space”, she said to my cousin who had moved into the room, smirking at me as if he was enjoying the show.
“You sure? Maybe this should wait.”
“I don’t think it can. Please…”
“Fine, but I’ll be right outside.” He pinned me with a serious look. “Don’t fuck anything else up. This is your last shot.”